The Feather Duster
by Traskold
Summary: Whatever happened to Errol the Owl? Nobody knows. But we can hazard a guess.


**Yesterday, I actually met a guy called Errol. And that got me thinking...**

**So enjoy! Trä.**

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**The Feather Duster**

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He was Strix Nebulosa. The Great Grey Owl. That 'ruddy bird'.

Errol never thought that he would end up playing such a role in both downfalls of Lord Voldemort. But then again, he didn't think much at all.

He'd been bought as dowry for Molly by Dorian Prewett when she married her school sweetheart Arthur Weasley, and saw extensive use by the Order of the Phoenix during the First War. Molly, rather than being an inducted and active member of the Order, ran the secretarial side of the rebel group. She sent and received letters, organised patrols and watches, and anonymously lobbied against the crumbling Ministry under Lorcan McLaird, all from her rocking chair whilst raising six young boys. Not a day passed when a close observer couldn't see several dozen owls flying over the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, towards the deserted reed beds in the south, many of them the same, haggard and wind buffeted Great Grey.

After the events in Godric's Hollow on Hallowe'en 1981 and the fall of Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix was disbanded and Errol became once again a family owl, doing nothing more than mail orders and the regular letters to and from Hogwarts. Yet not once did Molly Weasley realise how exhausted Errol was after each long-haul trip. No, as soon as he'd delivered a letter or package to someone, he was expected to fly all the way back across Great Britain.

This unhappy situation (for Errol at least) had continued until the early '90s, when there were no less than five Weasley children at Hogwarts. Eventually one day in the summer of 1994, after delivering the Hogwarts book orders for the umpteenth time, he'd collapsed in the Weasley's living room and consequently stayed completely immobile and unconscious for the next thirty six hours. Charlie, always the one who took care of the Weasley pets, nursed him back to health over the next week and then forbade his entire family from using him as a post owl for another month. However, when his saviour returned to the Balkans, the saviour's mother showed him no mercy. She literally had to throw him out of The Burrow's highest window before he took once again to the air, albeit if only for a little while.

Due to the resurrection and rebirth of Voldemort the next summer and the inevitable reforming of the Order, Errol was pressed back into thrice daily action, this time going between The Burrow, Grimmauld Place in Islington and Hogwarts. But the day had to come when the most important owl in the history of wizardkind tumbled out of the skies and into the forests below, never to return. The Weasleys assumed that he'd been attacked or captured by Voldemort's forces, but as all messages were in a code designed by Dumbledore himself, it was uncrackable. Anyway, there was a war to be fought, and one owl was little loss to the Light.

The children's endings to the legends say that he lived out his days peacefully in Sutton Forest, directing toads, moles and water-rats on how they should never go amongst humans as they were a murderous bunch. Of course, the toad didn't listen and the mole and the rat had to go and free him from numerous life sentences in the Old Bailey (twenty years is a long time for a small creature!). Closer to the real truth is that he was likely to land in some river or lake and therefore subsequently drowned; a malted, soggy and messy end to Errol, the Great Grey Owl.

But then again, he was such a ruddy menace.

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**Author's Notes:**

**- Just a one shot to improve my writing and soliloquising skills.**

**- Some reviewers have pointed out that Errol's species is never mentioned, which it isn't. However, in the films, he is portrayed as an old, bedraggled Great Grey. This is taken as canon and is listed as such on the Harry Potter Wiki**

**- The Owl, the Toad, the Mole and the Water-Rat are all characters in The Wind in the Willows.**

**Please leave a comment if you have the time. It will only take a minute or two. :-) **


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